Concrete Products - Editor, Don Marsh, Writes About the Concrete Industry.http://www.concreteproducts.com/opinion.html
Tue, 26 Sep 2017 17:54:01 -0400Joomla! - Open Source Content Managementen-gbdjones@semcopublishing.com (Concrete Products)Graphene rises from nanotech as a positive carbon factor for concretehttp://www.concreteproducts.com/opinion/10578-graphene-rises-from-nanotech-as-a-positive-carbon-factor-for-concrete.html
http://www.concreteproducts.com/opinion/10578-graphene-rises-from-nanotech-as-a-positive-carbon-factor-for-concrete.htmlScientists’ work with elements at the atomic level continues to yield promising concrete admixtures whose impact might one day approach that of polycarboxylate superplasticizers. As Concrete Products has observed in reports on Zenyatta Ventures Ltd. and EdenCrete Industries this past year, nanotechnology has led to identification and processing of concrete market-ready graphene, a single atom-thick layer of pure carbon derived from mineral or synthetic graphite.
]]>dmarsh@mining-media.com (Don Marsh)EditorialTue, 29 Aug 2017 15:55:20 -0400Bluegrass, Aggregates USA deals speak to healthy Martin Marietta, Vulcan rivalryhttp://www.concreteproducts.com/opinion/10522-bluegrass-aggregates-usa-deals-speak-to-healthy-martin-marietta-vulcan-rivalry.html
http://www.concreteproducts.com/opinion/10522-bluegrass-aggregates-usa-deals-speak-to-healthy-martin-marietta-vulcan-rivalry.htmlThe top two U.S. aggregate producers are pacing each other in building annual production volumes and long-term limestone and granite reserves. Predictable in most any economic cycle, their strategy takes on new dimensions in 2017, as investors see U.S. crushed stone and sand & gravel shipments netting some of the best returns or future earnings prospects in heavy building materials.
]]>dmarsh@mining-media.com (Don Marsh)EditorialWed, 26 Jul 2017 16:03:29 -0400Free speech, religious freedom claims stall in parking structure labor dispute http://www.concreteproducts.com/opinion/10504-free-speech-religious-freedom-claims-stall-in-parking-structure-labor-dispute.html
http://www.concreteproducts.com/opinion/10504-free-speech-religious-freedom-claims-stall-in-parking-structure-labor-dispute.htmlTransition is the order of the day at the National Labor Relations Board, as Trump Administration policies take hold and key appointments beckon. New leadership should support the sound National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) application exhibited in an early-May decision tied to a 2016 cast-in-place parking structure project.
]]>info@concreteproducts.com (Concrete News)EditorialThu, 06 Jul 2017 17:17:13 -0400Cemex, Heidelberg incur antitrust policy on both sides of the Atlantichttp://www.concreteproducts.com/opinion/10430-cemex-heidelberg-incur-antitrust-policy-on-both-sides-of-the-atlantic.html
http://www.concreteproducts.com/opinion/10430-cemex-heidelberg-incur-antitrust-policy-on-both-sides-of-the-atlantic.htmlJudging by the positive effect he and cabinet members have had on business beyond stock market metrics, President Donald Trump had cause to march toward his 100th day in office confident and content. Consider “Back to Basics,” a proclamation Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt outlined last month for a group of coal miners unaccustomed to friendly visits from White House representatives; or, House Joint Resolution 37, whereby President Trump and Capitol Hill allies have kneecapped aspects of Barack Obama’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order, which stymies competition in federal project contracting.
]]>info@concreteproducts.com (Concrete News)EditorialMon, 12 Jun 2017 15:18:33 -0400Investors have designs on admixtureshttp://www.concreteproducts.com/opinion/10363-investors-have-designs-on-admixtures.html
http://www.concreteproducts.com/opinion/10363-investors-have-designs-on-admixtures.htmlAcquisitions and related corporate maneuvers in the domestic and global admixture, construction chemical and companion materials business parallel the 2015-16 realignment of major North American cement, aggregate and ready mixed concrete producers noted here in January (“Mergers, acquisitions, musical chairs define back-to-back watershed years”). Consider more than two years of activity just beyond the sphere of North American market leader BASF Construction Chemicals:
]]>info@concreteproducts.com (Concrete News)EditorialMon, 01 May 2017 16:12:27 -0400Davis-Bacon: Repeal and don’t replacehttp://www.concreteproducts.com/opinion/10317-davis-bacon-repeal-and-don-t-replace.html
http://www.concreteproducts.com/opinion/10317-davis-bacon-repeal-and-don-t-replace.htmlBudget hawks on Capitol Hill are scrutinizing wasteful mechanisms in surface transportation construction against the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s infrastructure investment plant. One of the easiest targets for stretching dollars from an expanded highway and bridge funding pool was noted here last month: A lifting of Barack Obama’s executive order fostering the use of wage-inflating project labor agreements on higher ticket federal construction contracts.
]]>dmarsh@mining-media.com (Don Marsh)EditorialFri, 31 Mar 2017 11:18:02 -0400Construction coalition appeals to Trump’s sense of competition and wage fairnesshttp://www.concreteproducts.com/opinion/10248-construction-coalition-appeals-to-trump-s-sense-of-competition-and-wage-fairness.html
http://www.concreteproducts.com/opinion/10248-construction-coalition-appeals-to-trump-s-sense-of-competition-and-wage-fairness.htmlA late-January Associated Builders & Contractors study indicated how construction unemployment rates through the end of last year sustained a downward trend dating to 2010. “The ongoing year-over-year decline in the national unemployment rate is an indication of the health of the construction job market and its recovery from the deep recession,” explained economist Bernard Markstein, Ph.D., who analyzed U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics December 2016 data for ABC. “However, the shortage of skilled construction workers is hindering the ability of the sector to grow, with more than 80 percent of Associated Builders and Contractors members reporting a shortage of appropriately skilled labor.”
]]>info@concreteproducts.com (Concrete News)EditorialTue, 21 Feb 2017 14:37:20 -0500Mergers, acquisitions, musical chairs define back-to-back watershed yearshttp://www.concreteproducts.com/opinion/10177-mergers-acquisitions-musical-chairs-define-back-to-back-watershed-years.html
http://www.concreteproducts.com/opinion/10177-mergers-acquisitions-musical-chairs-define-back-to-back-watershed-years.htmlSeven 2015–2016 deals mark the latest turning point in North American cement production and a key downstream segment, pipe and precast. Incumbent operators streamlined or broadened their market footprints while a newcomer from Mexico saw opportunity north of the Rio Grande. Two cement players’ deals realigned market leadership in concrete pipe and precast.
]]>dmarsh@mining-media.com (Don Marsh)EditorialTue, 17 Jan 2017 14:12:25 -0500Trump: Concrete friend, regulation foehttp://www.concreteproducts.com/opinion/10127-trump-concrete-friend-regulation-foe.html
http://www.concreteproducts.com/opinion/10127-trump-concrete-friend-regulation-foe.htmlPrivate sector employers, employees and job seekers will soon have a friend in the White House. Before looking at the new administration’s promise, a brief look back to November 2001, when this column noted Donald Trump’s appreciation for quality construction. The then-celebrity developer had assessed post-Twin Towers building practice in a prime time exchange with ABC 20/20 host Barbara Walters, citing “more concrete,” as a means of constructing “a great building a lot tougher than the World Trade Center turned out to be.”
]]>info@concreteproducts.com (Concrete News)EditorialTue, 13 Dec 2016 13:59:24 -0500